South African movie industry under siege

United States President Donald Trump has stated his intention to place a 100% tariff on all movies shot outside the US, which could significantly affect South Africa’s film industry.

On 5 May 2025, Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he is authorising the US Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to begin the process of instituting this tariff.

The US President said this tariff would apply to “any and all movies” coming into the United States that are produced outside the country.

Trump’s rationale for this move was that the US movie industry is “dying a very fast death”. He explained that, while other countries offer incentives to draw away American filmmakers and studios, Hollywood and other areas in the United States are “being devastated”.

“This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” he said.

Therefore, the US President plans to institute a 100% tariff on “any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands”. 

Since this announcement, Trump’s plan has been heavily criticised by industry role players.

Critics of the tariff plan have argued that defining an “American-made” film is difficult, as movie production is taking place at greater scales than ever before and, more often than not, requires resources, funding, and talents that cannot be found only in the United States.

Therefore, even if a film is shot in the United States, it may not necessarily meet the standard of being “American-made”.

Other critics have also raised concerns that Trump’s tariffs will not bring movies back to the United States, but simply make them more expensive.

In conversation with CNN, Howard Berry, a film historian at Britain’s University of Hertfordshire, explained that tariffs would not revitalise a beleaguered industry in Hollywood. 

“Tariffs are just going to make films more expensive to make, and so we’ll have fewer of them,” he told the publication.

He explained that making movies is expensive, and if filmmakers can spend less money enlisting talented workers outside of America to shoot and edit their films, they will.

Berry argued that a better approach to encourage local production would be to make it cheaper to produce in the United States, rather than making it more expensive elsewhere through tariffs.

Local film industry

Regardless of their efficacy, if implemented, Trump’s tariffs would also apply to South Africa, which could present a significant threat to the local film industry.

Speaking to The Money Show’s Stephen Grootes, South African film producer Anant Singh said Trump’s movie tariff does not make sense.

“He’s imposing tariffs on movies that are shot outside, and in actual fact, when you look at the film industry and whether it’s shot here or in Budapest or the US, American-made movies generate 90% of the global income,” he said.

Singh explained that South Africa is a popular filming location for many American studios due to several factors.

Naturally, filmmakers will need to consider cost and the appearance of whatever shooting location they need. However, another crucial factor is creative and technical expertise, which South Africa has in abundance.

“If you come to South Africa, you know you can get all your crews, all your actors, everyone here has a degree of talent that is probably in the top three of the world,” Singh said. 

He explained that these factors are hugely beneficial to any production and a drawcard for many big studios and streaming services.

For example, he pointed to a Netflix production shot in South Africa that had a $200 million to $300 million budget. 

“That’s the total budget, but the shoot budget was probably $20 million or $30 million of that, and they’re happy to do it here because if they did it anywhere else, it would be double that. So those economies of scale are vital,” he said.

Singh further explained that audiences generally do not care where a movie was shot, which also incentivises filmmakers to look for options outside the United States, where it makes sense.

“When you’re watching a movie, nobody really cares where it was shot; wherever it’s located is what is important in the film, so to speak,” he said.

Therefore, Singh said he does not understand why Trump would want to tax his own country’s films, but also questioned whether these tariffs would be implemented at all.

“We’ll have to just play it out and see whether he backtracks on that and where it goes, but I don’t believe there’s much teeth on this,” he said.